Before heading to the premiere screening of 300: Rise of an Empire (check back for out the reviewsoon), I made a stop home. Since everyone online had been talking about the Oscars, naturally it would be the one conversation I’d have with The Sister that evening…

Me: “Hey, so did you hear about the Oscars results? 12 Years A Slave won Best Picture, and Matthew McConaughey won Best Actor in Dallas Buyers Club. You should watch that by the way, it’s really good. Jared Leto won Best Supporting Actor for his role in that too. Jennifer Lawrence was nominated…”

The Sister: “Who’s she?”

“The one in The Hunger Games.”

“Oh yea. She’s good. Was The Hunger Games nominated for Best Picture?”

“No”

“Why not?! That was a good movie”

“Yea, but it’s not really Oscar-worthy”

“Why not? It has a good story and good acting and stuff”

“Yea, but the shortlisted ones are, like, different; they take it to another level”

“I feel like all the Oscar nominated movies are serious films.”

“No that’s not true…”

I then Googled ‘Oscars 2013’ on my iPad and went through shortlist on Wikipedia. Then I Googled ‘Oscars 2012’, 2011, 2010, 2009 went through those too

The Sister: “Aren’t you going to be late to the movie premiere? The film starts in 20 minutes”

So I Googled ‘Oscar selection process’…

Me: “Ah check this out; this is how movies make the shortlist…”

The Sister: “You realise I didn’t ask for any of this, I don’t actually care…”

“It says here that there are 6000 on the committee, but they’re split into groups based on the judges’ expertise- so cinematographers evaluate the cinematography category, and so on. But all of them vote for Best Picture. Yea so that’s how they do it; maybe because they’re all experts their decisions are all sophisticated and stuff so that’s how they end up with a shortlist of serious movies every time”

“Well that’s not very fair. I really liked The Hunger Games. I don’t think the judges are very cool-they need a mix [of people]”

“Then movies like Twilight would make the list”

“That’s a stupid movie”

“Yes, but a lot of other people loved it”

“Didn’t it win something though?”

“Yea, at the MTV Movie Awards. Every single year. Ugh”

“But that has judges too…”

“Yea…teenagers. They vote for that stuff online. Do you see the difference in caliber?”

“Ha! Right…We’re The Millers was a good movie. That would never stand a chance at the Oscars either. You’re going to be late for that premiere by the way- it starts in 10 minutes!”